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Basics of Biblical Greek

I'm not up on everything that is out there, but William Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek, along with its accompanying workbook, is a good resource. Moreover, Dr. Mounce has a website at http://www.teknia.com that has a workbook answer key, Teknia fonts, and other helpful resources.

Additionally, if you check out the Master List of BibleWorks Add-ons here on this site, someone has helpfully compiled Mounce's BBG2 vocabulary as a .vrt file you can use with the BibleWorks flashcards function.

If possible, I would recommend studying Greek with a friend or with your pastor. It's much easier to stay disciplined (and encouraged) if someone is going through it with you.

I hope this helps. I'm sure some of the current seminarians in our group have much better suggestions!

Last edited by pastorsteve; 04-16-2004 at 01:31 PM.
Reason: misspelling

Parson's Greek Tutor

"You'll be able to read, write, and pronounce Greek by the time you complete this interactive program. The equivalent of a first-year course, this self-paced program includes 28 units that start with the alphabet and finish with the first chapters of John's Gospel. Includes an online vocabulary builder, quick review charts, and memorization drills. 486, 4MB RAM, Windows 3.1 or higher. From Parsons."

The updated version they use is
It's amazing what you learn when you teach!

I would also urge you to read Carson's Exegetical Fallacies, because there are all sorts of illegitimate byways people find themselves in when they begin studying Greek. This book is not too difficult to read, and has lots of advice to stop you falling into some of these traps.

The updated version they use is
It's amazing what you learn when you teach!

I would also urge you to read Carson's Exegetical Fallacies, because there are all sorts of illegitimate byways people find themselves in when they begin studying Greek. This book is not too difficult to read, and has lots of advice to stop you falling into some of these traps.

David McKay

Thank you to Brother McKay for the info. I was not aware of an updated version. I am glad to hear about that.

I too strongly recommend Carson's Exegetical Fallacies. An excellent read and help to anyone going about the task of exegesis.

Parsons and D. A. Carson

I'm new to Biblical languages. I know that BW has a 'Beyond the Basics" add-on module for Greek. But I need to start at the beginning. Any suggestions? Text or computer-based. Thanks. Bill

Certainly the request was for constructive input and constructive and friendly input was given from other sources. I will not add to that at this time.

However, in the interest of balance I offer a counterview regarding Parsons and D. A. Carson. I was not happily impressed with Parsons when I bought it several years ago, and I developed a strong prejudice against D. A. Carson when I read one of his books several years ago. That is hardly to say I think there is no value in Parsons or to say that I do not believe D. A. Carson is much more learned and accomplished than myself.

My knowledge of the Biblical languages is not of a high calibre by any means, but I do keep exposing myself to the discipline, and I count myself very privileged to have the level of ability that I do have. A friend of mine who has read from D. A. Carson's Exegetical Fallacies has approached me several times for my thoughts regarding several of Carson's assertions, and I have seldom seen a position the friend asked me about where I agreed with Carson. It's not so much that I prefer my prejudiced view to Carson's. It's that I have read widely enough to know that very learned people in the past articulated views that are more in harmony with my own. I do not know, but I do suspect Carson ignores or misrepresents these other well stated positions rather than deal with them fairly. Okay, I should mellow out, but I speak from my own first hand observations made in the past.

Having said that, I presume there is value in seeing what Carson has to say. Still, I have many other unread books on the shelf that I expect have greater value. Why? Because I bought them after seeing them cited repeatedly in other books that I already read and greatly benefitted from.

An explanation of previous comments

I think this may be almost equivalent to disagreeing with the pope for Catholics.

Can you tell us where specifically you disagree with Carson in his Exegetical Fallacies, or other works and why, please?

In my opinion, Don Carson has the great advantage of being bilingual, which gives him a different perspective on some issues.

David McKay

Did I miss something? Are you suggesting D. J. Carson should be afforded the same level of respect and uncritical reverence as the Pope would have from Catholics? I presume not, but I fail to catch the need for such a comparison. I do not know D. J. Carson, and I have read only one of his books, back in perhaps 1993. That experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I never read Exegetical Fallacies, and the point of my comment was that perhaps the person enquiring for help in learning Greek should know that the unreserved appreciation for D. J. Carson is not unanimous.

You ask for specific instances where I disagree with D. A. Carson. I cannot remember the specific instances my friend asked me about regarding claims that were made by D. J. Carson in Exegetical Fallacies, but I do remember that in each case I was able to refer my friend to comments of other learned and devout men from prior generations who very ably presented and espoused the opposite view than Carson was presenting. I concurred with the other authors, and, of course, I was alarmed that Carson took the opposite side. Since I had already read one book by Carson I had reason to suspect that he may have given short shrift to the contrary presentations made by learned men in prior generations and possibly even this one. --It is entirely possible I am incorrect. Still, my friend was happy to hear citations with a different view.

In any case, I disclaim any remembrance of the items of disagreement my friend asked me about, but I do remember that in every case I could cite world class scholars from prior generations. As for the previous book I did actually read for myself, it was called something like, The King James Version Debate: a Plea for Honesty. I may be slightly off on the title. I read a borrowed copy.

From my perspective in the KJV controversy book Carson was doing a hatchet job, and he was not very honest about it. He was far too ready to misrepresent historical facts and cite only easy targets on the other side of the issue while generally ignoring more learned champions and leaving the uninformed reader with the impression that learned people would be in agreement with him. This was my conclusion after reading the book carefully. Unfortunately, I no longer have access to the book.

Carson's books and views

I have only just finished telling someone on a list I assist in moderating that humour does not come over well in email, and now I have done the same thing I criticised in his post! I was joking when I compared Carson with the pope. Sorry this did not come across properly.

I must say that I disagree strongly with what you said about his book about the King James Version Debate. I think he has written a valuable critique of the view that the KJV is the best bible version, but for someone who thinks it is the best version, what he says may be hard to swallow.

At times I find Carson hard to read, but I think some of his books are the very best available on some subjects. The one I found hard to take was Love in Hard Places, where he sounded like he had turned into George W. Bush.

I think most Christians would find value in

Introduction to the New Testament [authorship shared with Leon Morris and Douglas Moo]

The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God

Exegetical Fallacies

his commentaries on John and Matthew

A Call to Spiritual Reformation [on Prayer in Paul's letters]

For the Love of God [2 volume brief devotional commentary on the bible]